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MILAN — Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio watched america’ girls’s hockey crew tackle Czechia on Thursday, the primary cease in a visit deliberate to incorporate a go to to the Olympics’ Opening Ceremony Friday night time.
Rubio sat within the third row off the ice, and Vance the fourth, and each cheered as america jumped out to an early lead.
Vice President JD Vance (C), his kids Mirabel and Ewan, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) attends the ladies’s preliminary spherical Group A Ice Hockey match between USA and Czechia on the 2026 Winter Olympic Video games in Milan, on February 5, 2026. (Alexander Nemenov/ AFP through Getty Photographs)
(ALEXANDER NEMENOV through Getty Photographs)
On the Opening Ceremony, Vance’s delegation is predicted to incorporate Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta. Additionally slated to be a part of the U.S. delegation: American gold medal-winning athletes together with determine skater Evan Lysacek, hockey gamers Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando and velocity skater Apolo Ohno.
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After the Olympics, Vance will journey to Armenia and Azerbaijan to aim to dealer a peace settlement.
Vance arrived in Italy amid ongoing and deliberate protests of the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers on the Olympics. Nevertheless, Italian Minister Matteo Piantedosi informed the Italian parliament earlier this week that solely brokers from ICE’s Homeland Safety Investigations division, which investigates cross-border crimes, could be current in Milan. U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Chief Safety Officer Nicole Deal stated Thursday morning that ICE brokers will “unequivocally” not be linked with america’ athlete delegation.
There’s an extended custom of vice presidents and different dignitaries representing america at each Summer season and Winter Olympic Video games. Former Vice President Joe Biden attended the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and former Vice President Mike Pence represented america on the Opening Ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018. Then-First Girl Jill Biden attended the Paris Olympics in 2024, the place she took in, amongst different occasions, a girls’s water polo match alongside Taste Flav. America didn’t ship then-vice president Kamala Harris or another delegates to China in 2022 as a diplomatic protest over China’s human rights abuses.
